Old Orckid Empire
The Orckid Empire is considered the cultural progenitor of all the nations of northern and eastern Kynaj, from the new West Orckid Empire all the way to the backwater Milosian Peninsula. Some even suggest they were equally responsible for the Four Great Satari Kingdoms to the south, though in truth those nations appear to be every bit as ancient as the Empire itself, if not more so.
Myths about the Empire's origins vary widely, but the most commonly credited ones share many similarities. The world was created by the Four First Winds: Beleth (North), Daerith (West), Zoroth (South), and Raeth (East). Together, they birthed the fields and mountains, forests and oceans. After many centuries, the Four Winds mixed amongst one another and created children: Berdrae (Northwest), Braethe (Northeast), Drazor (Southwest), and Rezoth (Southeast). These four Winds mixed with one another to create the animals that flew, trod, swam, and burrowed. Seeing this, the First Winds created their own animals: people. Raeth created the golden folk who would become the Darida Empire. Zoroth created the earthen folk who would become the Four Great Satari Kingdoms. Daerith created the ghast folk, who fled across the sea to become the Mornals. And Beleth created the Folk of the Sky: the Viisianari. Each Wind created their children with the expectation that they would do all that the the New Winds' creatures did: tread the land, sail the seas, dig the earth, and fly.
The first empress was supposedly a woman named Viis Belethen (literally "the North Wind"), who climbed to the top of Mount Rhesselor and received the gift of Magic from the North Wind herself. With this magic, Viis Belethen was able to bind the earth to her will, summon servants of shadow out of the sky, draw rivers from the sea, and command the fires of the heavens. Most importantly, she was able to compel her will upon others, perhaps the defining feature of Northern Magic. She passed this secret wisdom on to her daughters, who trained the first Virtuosos: enchanter-warriors who would come to command armies during Orckid's zenith.
Legends say the first Orckid city was Craed Beleth ("Northern City"), a floating paradise that circled around the summit of Mount Rhesselor. Today, the city of Craed Beleth is a major settlement in the West Orckid Empire, surrounded by the Maran Hills. It is possible that this modern Craed Beleth is the same city where the ancient Viisianari first began to flourish (the business of floating around mountains being the products of vivid imaginations), yet wizards are quick to note that there is no major water source near the city, which draws primarily from wells. All ancient cities of any noticeable size began either by the sea or along a river. It is possible that a great river once ran by Craed Beleth and has since dried up, but there is no evidence to support this. Far likelier, then, that the original Craed Beleth was nothing more than a small village or fortification fo some kind, long since lost to history.
Still, records and found artifacts suggest that the first Viisianars lived in the Maran Hills. From there, they spread west, conquering and destroying peoples so ancient as to not appear in any records or even legends. When they reached the Bitter Sea, they settled and expanded, slowly coming to control everything west of the Maran Hills, from the northern shores all the way to the Lorullian Foothills, west of Mount Rhesselor. It was when their Empress Viis Belethen conquered the Talash Tai of what is now called the Talashi Sea, south of Craed Beleth, that the Orckid Conquest was said to begin.
Obviously, this pre-Conquest expansion took place over many years, possibly even centuries. Viisianari legends speak of many queens living for hundreds or even thousands of years. This is false on its face: ancient Viisianari magic may well have been far more powerful then anything in properly recorded history, yet all studies of the Orckid Empire suggest that it lived no longer than two thousand years, from the conquest of the Talash Tai all the way up to the Mornal Invasion. Viisianari myths speak of at least a dozen empresses, all of them living or hundreds or thousands of years. Many have wasted their lives seeking the secret by which these queens lived beyond mortal years, when a quick tallying of history would have proven the foolishness of this pursuit.
So whoever may have conquered the Talash Tai, this empress began a campaign that would last centuries and spread all the way east to the Magical Kingdom of Brevessar (modern day Vaina), continuing south from there to subdue the barbaric Monosi and even the bestial Milosians. Along the way, the Viisianars absorbed many peoples into their empire: the Asnai, the Olhoria, the Shoq Nodal, the Ajmanites, the Barsadi, the Sheshai, the Daridans, and doubtless others lost to history. Some, like the Ajmanites, fought back against their doom, eventually being assimilated into the empire upon their surrender. Others, like the Sheshai, married into the empire. It is possible that some, like the Darida, were wiped out entirely. It is not always clear what prompted the various empresses (and occasional emperors) to conquer through surrender, marriage, or destruction; likely it depended on the commander in charge, the resistance met, and the moods of the empresses.
Many legends are spelt of the wars between Orckid and the Magical Kingdom of Brevessar, but all agree the conflict was ended with a great celebration. The empress herself took up residence in the capital city of Vaina, and indeed some suggest this served as the new capital of the empire itself for several generations. It is a well known anecdote that this city was so beloved, it would eventually come to serve as the name of the entire nation; the city itself would one day be renamed Felissar.
The conquests of Monos and Milos would prove anticlimactic afterward. Both regions were so backward as to be practically animals still. Whatever names the original inhabitants had for the lands were discarded. They were divided into clearly defined governorates and renamed (Monos meaning "the hill people," and Milos meaning "the lowland people").
The conquest of Samaya is surprisingly shrouded, being possibly the last of the Orckid conquests. It is oft conjectured that the nobles of the Daridan Empire flew east and founded Samaya, but this is based on little more than both peoples being described as golden-skinned. Many legends say the Daridans were completely wiped out, but just as many say it was only their nobility that were killed, and the commoners allowed to assimilate into the Orckid Empire. Speculation must wander, since so little is written of Samaya's conquest. Given how easily they won their independence later on, it may well be that any such conquest was merely nominal. It has been suggested that the ancient Samayans did not conceive of ownership the way the Orckid's did, and may well have given over their land with little to no dispute, finding the concept of rulership incomprehensible. If this is so, then they later learned much, as the Age of the Three Kingdoms began the day they declared independence from the Empire, centuries later. The jewel-colored eyes of many Gau and Seoi have even led some to assume that their ancient nobility intermarried with their Viisianar occupiers, and that the Three Kingdoms may in truth have been indigenous governors fighting over the remains of a collapsed empire. Samaya is further unique in that it appears to have never faced Mornal.
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Alternative Names
The Early Orckid Empire, The Ancient Orckid Empire, The Viisianari Empire
Demonym
Orckids
Location
Related Ethnicities